Earlier today, I got into my car to head to my classes when I noticed I had a winged hitchhiker. Now the thing was small, and flying around quickly, and I didn't get a good chance to look at it because, well, watch the road, not the bug.

It looked an awful lot like an ant though, and I think it was a male, could have sworn I saw a thin abdomen. He was trying to use me as a landing pad so I shook and swatted. A few minutes later, I felt an itch below my wrist and, lo and behold, I had a bug bite.

dinoman9877 wrote:Earlier today, I got into my car to head to my classes when I noticed I had a winged hitchhiker. Now the thing was small, and flying around quickly, and I didn't get a good chance to look at it because, well, watch the road, not the bug.

It looked an awful lot like an ant though, and I think it was a male, could have sworn I saw a thin abdomen. He was trying to use me as a landing pad so I shook and swatted. A few minutes later, I felt an itch below my wrist and, lo and behold, I had a bug bite.

You're thinking about a sting, in the case of an ant/wasp, and a bite in the case of a fly. Male ants can do neither.

If you enjoy my expertise and identifications, please do not put wild populations at risk of disease by releasing pet colonies. We are responsible to give our pets the best care we can manage for the rest of their lives.

Yeah, ants can bite, but unless it is a leaf-cutter/Camponotus major or Polyergus, a bite is barely going to be noticeable. A sting is what would leave a mark like that.

If you enjoy my expertise and identifications, please do not put wild populations at risk of disease by releasing pet colonies. We are responsible to give our pets the best care we can manage for the rest of their lives.

I think I'd know if I've been stung. I mean it was like a mosquito bite, just an itchiness that made itself known after a bit. But there was no mosquitos, just this little thing that looked awfully like an ant.

Earlier today, I got into my car to head to my classes when I noticed I had a winged hitchhiker. Now the thing was small, and flying around quickly, and I didn't get a good chance to look at it because, well, watch the road, not the bug.

It looked an awful lot like an ant though, and I think it was a male, could have sworn I saw a thin abdomen. He was trying to use me as a landing pad so I shook and swatted. A few minutes later, I felt an itch below my wrist and, lo and behold, I had a bug bite.

So do even the alates bite if they feel threatened?

My Camponotus queen bit me and.... Owwwwww

"God made every kind of wild beasts and every kind of livestock and every kind of creeping things;" (including ants) "and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25